OptaJoe: 1035 – Fernando Torres has scored his first Premier League goal in 1035 minutes. Refreshed.

Full time

BluesChronicle: FT: Villa 2-4 Chelsea. Blues rush to 0-2 lead, only to be pegged back to 2-2. Late goals from Ivanovic & Torres seal character-filled win.

sidcelery: Torres premonition came off. Never said that before. Are people still putting money on him? I’m neither that brave nor rich…

chelseayouth: Three points and an Arsenal defeat. Good stuff, reels an extra team a bit closer for a CL spot, and one we can still play/beat to boot.

The match reports

The Observer, Russell Kempson: “On a chilly and sombre day in the midlands, Chelsea crept closer to Champions League qualification next season – that is, if they don’t win the competition this time around – with a nerve-jangling victory over a young and eager yet brittle Aston Villa side. They threw away a 2-0 lead, allowing Villa to draw level, but two late goals crowned an entertaining encounter that was perhaps needed after the desperate news emanating from Villa Park the previous day, when it was announced that Stilian Petrov, the Villa captain, had been diagnosed with acute leukaemia.”

The Sunday Telegraph, Graham Chase: “Chelsea did their bit but looked ready to depart with an easy win thanks to goals from Daniel Sturridge and Branislav Ivanovic. But James Collins and Eric Lichaj pulled Villa level with 10 minutes left to set up what looked likely to be a remarkable comeback. Yet it was not to be as Ivanovic scored his second before Fernando Torres broke away to score his first Premier League goal in more than five months.”

The Independent on Sunday, David Instone: “It’s onwards and upwards for a manager who has now overseen six victories and a draw from his eight matches in charge. For Villa, the landscape is different. But at least we were all talking about football at the end; just as Stiliyan Petrov would want it.”

Official Chelsea FC Website: “Another impressive win for the Blues under the stewardship of Roberto Di Matteo which keeps our hopes of a top-four finish alive. After taking a 2-0 lead courtesy of goals from Daniel Sturridge and Branislav Ivanovic, Aston Villa looked to have stolen a point when James Collins and Eric Lichaj scored in quick succession midway through the second half. We weren’t to be denied, however, and soon after Branislav Ivanovic restored our lead with his second of the game, before a wonderful Fernando Torres goal in stoppage time capped an impressive victory and our first away win in the league since the 2-1 success at Wolves in January.”

Fernando Torres is Chelsea’s MVP at the moment. Without him on the pitch, our Blues are doomed to soporific failure. With him on the pitch, well…you saw the result. I’ve elaboprated on this a little bit, if you don;t mind taking a peek: http://www.themagicworld.org/bloog/?p=3981

Typical, isn’t it. Arguably one of our best performances in the EPL this season and there’s nothing but tumbleweed in here.

Though I guess our Podding Shed boys have summed it all up in their latest fine effort separately and don’t just want to repeat themselves.

On which, you must be attracting that elusive Grumpy Old Men Who like An Intelligent Rant demographic by now, I assume 😉

Not sure I entirely followed the discussion on the FA Cup scheduling row and who is to blame though.

From a quick peruse of the respective websites it seems Sky are down to show live:

Sat 12.45 – Norwich v Man City

Sun 4pm – Man U v A Villa

While ESPN are still showing on their listings a 4 hour FA Cup programme from 2.30 on Sunday while they are due to be covering Rugby across the 12.30pm Saturday slot, which is when their allocated game is now kicking off!

I can only assume ITV are the villains with their commentary team insisting on being able to watch the Man U game coverage before our game starts 😉

Twas always the case after victory that we see less traffic in these here parts. Just as I have always maintained that the best songs and poetry are written through heartbreak and pain, so it seems are the best comments.

We’re a strange bunch aren’t we?

Glad you like The Podding Shed – we went into this week with even less pre-planning than normal, and normal pre-planning usually consists of the sort of planning one might associate with a Lib Dem government…..loads of shouting ”we’re in, we’re in, we rule etc’ before some sage sits down and says ‘right …now what?’ . Cue lots of of confused and scared faces.

You’re right to question the rant about scheduling, because I assumed ESPN were covering the Saturday PL game, Norwich v City and that Sky would be showing the FA Cup game in competition with that while not having ITV compete with their 4.00pm Man Utd game on Sunday.

I have to admit to an error here in that Sky are showing both PL games. But that still leaves ESPN competing against Sky for their audience, while the 6.00pm kick off leaves ITV and Sky not competing. So my point that one kick off on Saturday is set due to works on the rail network (as per the FA supposedly) and the TV companies have to compete for viewers, while the 6pm game was scheduled so that a TV company can show it at what they consider to be the best time still holds.

So are the FA dictating the kick off time for one game (based on it having to be played on Saturday due to Hillsborough and at an early kick-off due to rail) for the benefit of the fans (supposedly) and leaving the second game to be driven by the needs of the TV companies and bollocks to the fans?

It may be all of these and none of these. But who the hell knows?

At the start of the season the Semi Dates were in the schedule. Did Liverpool say anything then? Did anyone think to ask them? If it is such a significant date to so many how did it apparently get overlooked such that there was all this faffing about?

If the FA Cup is so important then the KO times should be set in stone before the competition starts then we all know where we are.

It’s the FA bending over for tele and the police without worrying about the clubs and pissing on the paying spectator, as it’s been for years. What about 2002, when we schlepped up to Villa Park with Fulham for a Sunday lot at about 7.

You guys should come over to Tokyo or somewhere similar. The whole kick-off time debate will suddenly get a whole new meaning. I have to suffer for over a month due to the ridiculous time difference. Some games they actually broadcast the day after tomorrow. So them dodgy Internet feeds that Mark (was it?) mentioned in the podcast are usually my only hope. Wake up at 5 pm to watch Benfica – Chelsea and then go to work. Or something like that.

Wigan is a home fixture. The only remaining (league) fixture outside the M25 is our penultimate game at Anfield.

Another good win. With the usual, obligatory dodgy bits thrown in. Hopefully City can do us a favour against Arsenal and we can do ourselves one by not pissing gettable points (with the greatest respect to Wigan and QPR) up the wall as we have throughout the season and putting in huge performances against Arsenal and Newcastle. Then we’ll see how we stand before Liverpool and Blackburn.

And do you not expect us to play a game in Barcelona or Milan this month???

As an aside – does anyone else think (like me) that RdM is a bit like David Webb 19 years ago – an ex-Chelsea great getting us out of a rut, restoring a bit of our pride and doing a very good short term job – but we still need to get a new manager in the summer?

Once again, a very good podcast. Can’t say too much about the FA nonsense as I haven’t lived in England for several years, but I always favor Saturday morning fixtures as I can watch them at my local Saturday night here in lovely Beijing.

As for the overall transformation of team, I’m baffled. It’s something we’ll only know later once NDA’s have been forgotten and players have moved on, but something tremendous must have happened once AVB left. I supported him, so I clearly have no idea about anything football related, but I does make me wonder just what AVB was telling the players to do.

I’ve no idea either what AVB was telling the players to do. However AVB is now employed as a teacher in Gondomar (a small town just outside Porto) and can frequently be heard shouting down the main corridor “walk boy, don’t run”

Personally I felt sorry for AVB. I imagine RDM has a very simple brief: do the best you can with what you’ve got until the end of the season. Then everything can be reviewed. But clearly AVB’s brief was to transform completely the way we played football. The high defensive line, high octane pressing game is not his invention. It is Barcelona football and that was what Abramovich wanted brought to Chelsea. As we all now know (and could easily have predicted), most of the players were not capable of this kind of football, especially as so many of them were getting on a bit, and worse still, were not willing to give it a try, and regarded being asked to do so as an affront. I don’t think you can blame AVB for not having the raw materials to execute a brief that was given him by the owner of the club. I agree that his man management skills were found wanting at times but I feel that he was in an impossible situation right from the start. It is no wonder the players all seem more relaxed now under Di Matteo. They are no longer being asked to do what they are not able to do, and it must have been pretty tense having a dead man walking around the place, and one who probably felt that he had been stabbed in the back.

Problem is, once you see that the players are struggling to adapt to the system you want, presumably if you’re a smart manager you work with what you have – AVB didn’t and managed to alienate any number of decent players in the process; I felt he was hamstrung by any number of factors, but an awful lot of his problems were rather of his own making.

I’m not saying they weren’t penalties, and maybe i’m just jealous of Barca, but it always seems like they get the most technical penalties that are never given in normal (non barca) games. I’m talking about the second one. The ball hadn’t been kicked and there was some shirt pulling going on. Happens all the time. Normally the ref would stop the play, have a word with the players and get on with it butttt noooooo, not with Barca.

I have this image in my head where Barca have a team of lawyers blowing (that too) the dust from some very ancient rule books so they can pull them out when needed in games.

” I say Iniesta, did you know that if you are fouled by a chap who does not have his shirt tucked in then it is a red card- well, it was in 1847? Best to try this in the box if you don’t mind”

Ok, my discussion is regarding the second penalty which has been given against Nesta for holding Pyol’s (I think) shirt. However, the ball was not even in play, when it happened. And then referee went blank, when Ibrahimovich collided with Alves. It is ridiculous, every year the same story. It is simply preposterous and shambolic.

Didn’t see much issue with the first penalty, but the second was pretty suspect. Had the ball a) been in play and b) penalties were always given for shirt pulling in the box then you’d think fair enough, but it was a typically dubious Nou Camp decision.

Should we get through tonight, we may as well start preparing ourselves for the inevitable.

Assuming we don’t fuck it up tonight, then yes if I was a betting man then money on a Barca win seems like the safe option. But I honestly believe that they’re not unbeatable, and if, and it’s a big IF should we stop the supply to Messi, and that means Xavi and Iniesta shackled, then we have a chance. Their defence is suspect, and I’m sure Drogs or Torres would relish terrorising them, even Sturridge could cause havoc. I suppose the first leg at home will be key and if we can stop them scoring, who knows.
Of course if we do manage to get to the final, then depending on the other semi, if it’s Real Madrid then I would say no chance, because Jose will find a way to win it.

Just an observation on our last interim manager in charge GH, our season does appear to be spookily mirroring that with RDM. We get knocked out in the CL semi to the harlem globetrotters, but we go onto winning the FA Cup against Everton.

Ha! You and LTB are probably much more accurate. Just trying to keep positive. We definitely aren’t as good as 2009 but bar Messi I’m not sure they are a better overall squad than their 2009 squad. Looking forward to the report.